Introduction to Project Brief

Our first project brief is based on the Elizabethan Era. To get started on this brief, I am going to start off by researching Elizabethan hair and finding out some more about the type of hairstyles that were popular for not only women but also men from around this time.

When Queen Elizabeth I took reign, fashion started to change. This involved hair, makeup and clothing. Elizabeth was known for wanting to look powerful and liked to make sure she always looked her best, especially for her portraits as many people would never get to see her in person so portraits were very important during her lifetime. For her hair, she either dyed her hair or wore wigs and hair pieces. The typical hair look for a woman would be very light hair, either blonde or ginger (women would use products such as saffron, cumin seed, celandine and oil combined to achieve this look), this was mostly only achieved by women of wealth as they could afford the products needed, lower class women would often have darker hair. 

For the hairstyle, their hair would most often be curly and it would either be worn all down with an accessory on top or a popular design was the hair tied up in one or two buns and some plaits included. It was also popular for women and men to have a high forehead and for their hairline to start further back, to achieve this they would pluck the hair at the top of their forehead in a heart shape. It was very important to know the poor people from the rich and to be able to tell, wealthy people would quite often wear accessories on their heads and in their hair such as feathers, gems and jewels. A very popular accessory that Queen Elizabeth loved herself was pearls. She was seen wearing these quite a lot, not only in her hair but also around her neck and in her ears.

(5 shocking beauty secrets from ancient world history, 2015)

 

Another popular hairstyle that was popular with everyone including Elizabeth was high hair. This was achieved two ways, you could either backcomb the hair or you could add padding to it. As the Queen started to age, her hair would become thinner and look less stylish so she started wearing wigs. It was said that she owned around 80 wigs and hairpieces before her death and her favourite style to add to her wigs was tight curls. Elizabeth would often wear her crown on top of her styled hair but for everyone else, this was not possible so for wealthy women, large head jewels were often added to their hair. Middle class women try to follow Queen Elizabeth's hair designs but they were not as wealthy so would often end up creating their own handmade hair dye out of cheaper products that they could afford, they would also copy the hairstyles but would probably not have accessories as elegant as the upper class would. 

The lower class would have very basic hairstyles and would look completely different to the middle and upper classes. Their hair would most likely be darker colours such as brown or black and many of these women would be workers so it would involve being outside all day with their hair tied back in a hat or scarf. When the women weren't working, their hair would be worn in long plaits or braids to keep it away from their faces. It was also known that women from this class would cut their hair and sell it in order to make wigs for the upper class.